Bulgaria's Health Minister Halts BGN 30 M of Procurement

Public procurement procedures worth BGN 30 M were launched in the healthcare sector during the last days of Plamen Oresharski's cabinet, the interim Health Minister revealed.

Miroslav Nenkov said on Thursday they were to be frozen as they contained a number of flaws, including in the tenders envisaged.

In his words, the ministry would not abandon the procedures started by Nenkov's predecessor Tanya Andreeva, but would consider how to fix their issues, the website Dnevnik.bg reports.

The biggest single procurement involved the so-called "electronic healthcare", at BGN 12 M, but the requirements set out by the ministry were not clear and precise enough, Nenkov explained.

He cited as a particular problem that the ministry placed an order for an electronic system that could be used by only 1000 computers, and it was unknown who would use it since GPs alone number 5000, and all pharmacies and hospitals should also be connected.